Graphics flicker issue

[randruff]

Ok, this is kind of an odd problem that is really stunning me. Last week, I updated my sound card drivers, everything went fine....or so i thought. My computer was running great up until, it seems this happened. The problem i face is that when I am playing games (HL2, Splinter Cell: CT, LOTR:BFME, etc) there appears to be a "rendering" issue. To paint a mental picture, imagine an old film.....there are random, weird "splotches" that flash for a split second on the screen. Well, this is what is happening to me now. So, my first thought was that there was some goofy issue between my sound card drivers and video card drivers. I rolled back my sound card drivers. I also rolled back my catalyst drivers. Still no luck. I did a system restore point to the day before this happened. Still no luck. Could i have possibly corrupted a directx driver within in Windows or something? Any input would be appreciated, thank you.

AMD Athalon XP 2600+
Asus A7N8X - deluxe
1 gig PC2700 DDR
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro All in Wonder
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Windows XP Pro SP2
Raidmax 550W PSU

 

[tweaker]

No overclocking I recon?

 

[randruff]

no overclocking whatsoever.

 

[lovely?]

i would check that your vid card is secured tightly, maybe you bumped it when installing your sound card... that's all i can think of, sorry...

 

[atomic]

i would check that your vid card is secured tightly, maybe you bumped it when installing your sound card... that's all i can think of, sorry...

He only updated his drivers...as far as i can tell he didnt touch the hardware.

As for the problem have you tried reinstalling DirectX?

EDIT: I've just noticed the age of this thread. Only replied because it was on the new posts section.